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Yesterday, a group of advocates sent the following open letter to the New Orleans City Council, regarding a proposed citywide curfew that would make it illegal for youth under the age of 16 to be outdoors after 8pm.

(Houston, TX) Today, public health groups blasted ExxonMobil Chemical Company for blocking new restrictions on toxic chemicals that damage children’s health and pollute local communities. Outside its corporate headquarters, protesters unveiled a giant twenty-foot rubber ducky, a favorite bath toy often made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which contains toxic chemicals known as phthalates (pronounced ‘THA-lates’), which are produced by ExxonMobil at its Baton Rouge, LA factory.

The Norwood Thompson playground is a gathering place for all ages in Gert Town. It is a place of fellowship for residents of this New Orleans neighborhood, and provides a break for working mothers to spend time with their children.

But it is also destined and designed as an accident waiting to happen. As you will hear and see from the children and adults who use it, the playground is an environmental health hazard.

My dad used to work at one of the chemical plants in the Point Comfort/Port Lavaca area in Texas, about a two and a half hour drive southwest from Houston. The plant produces plastics and PVC pellets which are used to make anything from sandwich bags to molded products. My father was a waste-water operator. They repeatedly had him send contaminated water out into our bays. Many of these contaminants are cancer causing agents.

New Orleans, LA - More than 100 youth and community members from the Gulf Coast are on their way to Washington D.C. today to bring a unified messaged to Congress and the President: the BP oil disaster is not over.

The occasion is Power Shift 2011, a youth climate summit expected to attract 10,000, for four days of workshops, training, and action in front of the White House and on Capitol Hill.

An annual Asian heritage festival, hosted by Mississippi youth, is now extending into an ongoing effort to support fishing families impacted by the BP oil disaster.

In October, the Vietnamese youth group Gulf Coast REACH hosted the 4th Annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in downtown Biloxi, Mississippi. The festival was intended to be a “Day of Respite and Spirit” for those affected by the oil disaster.

With the DREAM Act now stopped by the Senate, the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) continues to hope that undocumented young people across the nation will get the opportunity to become American citizens.